Academic Affairs

Theater and dance have a long history of political engagement, social intervention, and community building. This course examines the historical precedents for today's "applied" theater and dance practice, including Piscator, Brecht, Boal, Cornerstone Theatre, Judson Dance Theatre, and Yvonne Rainer. Significant time will also be spent working with local agencies and institutions to create community-based performances addressing social issues such as homelessness, poverty, prejudice, and the environment, among others. This is a new course that Bechtel will teach for the first time this semester (Spring 2010), and that will be offered on a regular rotation every two or three years. 

Drawing on her research, Byrnes plans to teach the course "Contemplative Education: Principles and Practices in Contemporary Society" during the 2010-2011 academic year. This course will be offered as an Education Department elective and will afford students the opportunity to engage and develop contemplative practices as a means to cultivate their own emotional balance, mindfulness, and compassion. Potential essential questions to be explored in the course are: What are the principles and practices of contemplative education in our contemporary society? How can contemplative practices influence our understanding of education? What are the benefits and limitations of educators cultivating compassion, emotional balance and mindfulness?

In order to enhance her understanding of issues that are of relevance to both of her introductory courses, Principles of Microeconomics (Econ 101) and Principles of Macroeconomics (Econ 102), DeGraff received funding to attend a symposium being conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for college professors of economics and related fields. The symposium focuses on on three inter-related areas: the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis, the short-term policy response of the Fed to the crisis, and the potential longer term implications of the financial crisis for monetary policy and financial regulation. The topics and issues addressed in the symposium are far removed from her own research areas and elective courses, but are of substantial relevance and value to the two introductory courses.

This course development award will support the creation of a new course: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Eastern Europe. Ghodsee will visit three Gender and Women's Studies departments or centers in Sofia, Budapest, and Zagreb to interview experts and collect materials for a 300-level seminar that will count toward the majors of Gender and Women's Studies (GWS) and Eurasian and East European Studies (EEES). This course will build upon an existing 200-level course (GWS 218 - Sex and Socialism) and will give Bowdoin students the chance to engage with contemporary scholarship in the field of Gender Studies produced by academics and intellectuals based in Eastern Europe.

Professor Vete-Congolo seeks to enrich an existing course for Fall 2010, Francophone Cultures, through travel to Cameroun this summer to carry out three sets of research in relation to the course: to conduct primary research on African orality and relgion at CERDOTOLA (Center Regional de Recherche et de Documentation sur les Traditions orales et pour le developpement des langues africaines), a research institution that comprises of several west African countries and which is dedicated to research on west African history, traditions, cultures, and language; to meet and to interview with traditional storytellers and to experience the storytelling of Africa first-hand, specifically in vodoun communities; and to research women's experience in the two traditional spheres of orality and tribal religion.